Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
our economies on what might be continually available is
not a hopeless dream. It will not be easy and it does not
have to be done in a very few years. Indeed, I do not
believe it can be done in as few as
years, in spite of what
some well-known advocates say. What the possibilities
and limitations are is the subject of this section of the
book. We would also do well to remember that while the
energy sector is the largest part of the climate-change
problem, it is not the only part. The agricultural sector
will be the hardest to control, and too little effort has gone
into understanding it. Agriculture will need to be included
in emissions reduction eventually, but we can begin with
the energy sector which we do understand and where the
largest early reductions in emissions can be made.
.
Sources of Emissions
Chapter
showed the main sources of the greenhouse
gases that are causing climate change. About
% of our
emissions come from fossil-fuel use and some industrial
processes, while about
% comes from agriculture and
land-use changes. Fossil-fuel use is what I focus on here.
We can do a lot to reduce emissions from our energy
supply; it will be relatively easy at the start because there
are large gains in ef
ciency to be made, and become
progressively harder as the CO
emissions are wrung
out of the system.
It is important not to mix agendas as those I called the
ultra-greens seem to do. If carbon can be captured and
put away securely, do it. If you substitute a modern gas-
red
one and eliminate two-thirds of the previous emissions,
fired electricity generating plant for an old coal-
